


For the Love of Discovery

by nauticaas



Series: One Piece of a Dream [3]
Category: One Piece
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Reincarnation, Friendship, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-07
Updated: 2015-02-07
Packaged: 2018-03-10 21:32:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,981
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3304205
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nauticaas/pseuds/nauticaas
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A medical student and a culinary arts student meet up in the natural sciences department. Only one of them is not actually who they claim to be. (Chopper stumbles across an important discovery one day in the science building. Also cupcakes.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	For the Love of Discovery

**Author's Note:**

> Yes, this is set in that Traveling Tale/Any Other Way universe that I have a soft spot for. Laden with headcanon, self-indulgent stuff, and an OC. Probably the least interesting modern/reincarnation AU you'll ever read.

Class ended with a hissing sigh as Dr. Barlowsky disposed of the instructional experiment's remnants, reciting their assignment for the weekend in that monotone that she had perfected to be the exact combination of chillingly severe and yet entirely sleep-inducing. It was the voice that he had come to dread hearing whenever it was directed at him, not because he truly disliked her (she was an excellent professor and doctor in her own right), nor for any aversion to the subject she taught.

(Biochemistry of Steroidal and Parasitic Macro-compounds had to be one of the most fascinating courses he had ever taken.)

No, the reason that he always winced inwardly when Dr. Barlowsky looked his way was because—

_"Theunis-Antoine Chopper."_

—she always, _always_ addressed him by his full name.

He had asked her to call him Chopper, or even Tony-Tony*, but she never seemed to remember. It was easier for her photographic memory to call up the image of his name on the class roster, apparently. He still wasn't sure how that worked, but occasionally he caught a glimpse of a smile on her lips (and he wondered if she was maybe just teasing him).

Chopper pasted a smile on his face and turned around at the door, hefting his textbook-laden backpack over his shoulder with no small effort. "Yes, Dr. Barlowsky?"

"Don't cringe behind my back," she said lightly, closing up her laptop and sliding it into the sleek briefcase labeled "2" that she always carried around (he had seen other professors in the department carry similar ones, each with a different number on them). "I wanted to confirm that you'll be attending the summit in Hazard Heights next week."

His eyes lit up at the mention of the National _Medicis_ Scholar's Association summit. It was only through his teachers' recommendations that he had been invited to go (and it was Dr. Barlowsky who had nominated him in the first place). "Yes, of course! …not that I'm still really excited about that, butthankyousomuch-"

Dr. Barlowsky sighed and let him follow her out of the room, already conceding defeat in the face of an undefeatable foe, Chopper's not-so-reluctant enthusiasm for praise, compliments, and the science of medicine. Chopper, for his part, managed to only ooze euphoric excitement over his long-suffering professor up until the second lobby (a journey in itself).

It was while they were headed out of the Earth Sciences wing that he noticed an unusual sight slinking down from the faculty offices, blue hoodie pulled firmly up over their head. By 'noticed' he meant 'walked right into them'.

"Ouch! O-oh, I'm so sor-" Chopper stopped rubbing his forehead long enough to focus on the actual person in front of him. "Sanji? I didn't expect to bump into you here!"

Sanji was that certain shade of cool pale skin in which every emotion stood out like a sore thumb, and in this moment that thumb was turning a particular shade of green (a funny analogy as Usopp and Nami were the most horticulturally inclined out of their circle of friends). "I-I-I was…I mean, the professor…stupide…"

It occurred to him why he hadn't expected a chance encounter like this one, not with Sanji of all people. Chopper furrowed his brow. "What are you doing in the sciences complex?"

If at all possible, Sanji's stammering had become nearly manic and repetitive. Chopper couldn't even tell which of his mother languages he was letting slip anymore, a considerable feat by all standards.

"Sanji?" he tried again, nodding a quick goodbye to Dr. Barlowsky, who looked only too relieved to escape Chopper's own rambling for a while. "Hey, you know I can only understand one of those, right?"

"…I-have-to-go-shit," Sanji said in a distressfully (and distressingly) loud voice. In the middle of the teachers' hall of the Natural Sciences building. "I-mean-shit-I-have-to-go. Here-is-a-snack."

He shoved a small pack of clear-wrapped cupcakes into Chopper's hands, and before he could even give so much as a thank you, Sanji took off down the hall and ducked into the nearest open door. Chopper waited with bated breath, and when he heard the telltale crash of a closet full of cleaning supplies coming down over his friend's head, he slowly approached the custodian's supply room and peered inside. "I don't think that's the closet you're looking for, Sanji."

* * *

Sanji held the ice pack to his brow, wincing as the pain spiked at the freezing cold touch to his bruised skin. "Why did you not tell me it was the janitor's closet?"

"I didn't expect you to run in full speed," Chopper defended himself, but honestly he had. It was because he knew how fast Sanji's getaways could be (when he actually _deigned_ to run away from something) that he said nothing, hoping to corner his friend before this little incident became a mere blip in their consciousness.

He had run into his friends in strange places before (like that surreal, sleep-deprived midnight meeting with Robin at the same Victorian-style "Mummy" unwrapping** in the Archaeometry Society House). What was strange about this encounter was not just the place, but the way Sanji had behaved at being discovered in the sciences complex. This was not something as simple as a culinary school student wandering into the wrong building.

Chopper picked anxiously at the crinkly wrapping around the cupcakes (a tempting assortment of moist chocolate and strawberry cakes) and wished that he could open the package without seeming insensitive to his friend's plight. "So, do you want to try answering my question?"

When Sanji looked away stubbornly, he took a deep breath and pressed further. "Please? Is it…is it about this?"

He held up one of Sanji's books, a worn-edged text that he'd help fish out of the mess in the closet. Sanji's mouth tightened, and he snatched the book with the blue lettering from Chopper's hands. His laugh was almost forced. "Where did you…? Ahem, I was just walking around to unwind, and somehow I ended up in your building, ahaha…I found this old thing, too. Don't look at me like that."

"What about this?" Chopper held up a different textbook with a background of crashing waves on the blue cover. "And this one?"

 _"Stop doing that,"_ Sanji said, shoving them all back into his bag hurriedly. He shot Chopper a glare, receiving nothing but a sheepish smile in return ("Sorry, I was looking for more snacks"). The little pack of cupcakes became a hostage for that, to his dismay. "Chopper, I have leverage now. Leave this alone."

He looked at the delicate little confections sadly, but his curiosity outweighed the disappointment of losing his immediate source of sugar. It wasn't like Sanji would deprive him of them forever, after all. "I guess you'll want me to give this back, too."

Chopper slid the papers across the café table, and now he knew Sanji's look wasn't just discomfort and anger, but guilt. Slowly, his friend reached across the table for them, but he didn't take them back yet. "Chopper, how much sugar is it going to take to erase this?"

The offer was tempting, but Chopper knew better than to fall for a superficial cover-up like that. He shrugged, his hand still resting over the papers.

Sanji scowled at him. "Chopper…"

"I don't see why you're being so secretive about this," he said finally, letting the application return to its rightful owner. "It looks like an amazing opportunity, to be honest. You must be excited...imagine, a whole semester-"

"It doesn't matter, Chopper. I turned it down."

Chopper was dumbstruck, and his cupcakes suffered for it (he stuck his elbow into the poor beautifully decorated cakes while he was distracted). "What? But why?"

"It was stupid," Sanji muttered, nearly crumpling the papers in his haste to hide them amongst his things again. "I didn't really care about it."

"You filled that form out completely," Chopper pointed out. "And what about all of these classes you're signed up for? I doubt that _Chemistry of the World's Oceans_ is required reading for your combined Culinary Arts degree."

He shook his head, his expression a look of total resignation that Chopper was unfamiliar with. It wasn't even the resigned "I pulled an all-nighter and I'm sure I'm still going to fail my finals" look; there was something really forlorn and empty about it.

It didn't suit Sanji at all.

"I'm not going to take them." Sanji smiled thinly, setting the ice pack down on the table between them. "It was just a waste of time. I'm just glad I came to my senses now instead of later."

Chopper looked down at the bag tucked underneath Sanji's chair and wondered at the difference between the evidence of coursework hidden inside of it and the hollow conviction behind Sanji's words. Was this the first time Sanji had grappled with this decision, or had every step of his been shadowed by the obvious desire he had for this subject? And why was it such a source for secrecy?

Sanji seemed to notice the look on his face and shook his head vehemently. "I already made up my mind, Chopper. It's not happening."

"At least…think about it, okay?"

Sanji narrowed his eyes at him.

"I made up my mind," he repeated with less conviction, which Chopper had been banking on. Then, his eyes changed and he almost looked pleadingly at him, sliding the pack of flattened cupcakes back toward him. "Please don't bring this up again, okay?"

Chopper nodded and smiled; he refused to be swayed even by the prospect of more homemade sweets and cakes, but he respected his friend's privacy more than anything else. It was obviously something he felt strongly about, both in signing up for those courses and for hiding them (but there was the mystery of why he felt the need to drop them again). "I guess I could do that…but your cupcakes are all mush now."

"Who's fault is that?" Sanji raised his eyebrow, wincing a bit as that aggravated the bruise on his forehead. But a reluctant smile crossed his face, and he stood from the table with a sigh, promising to return from the front counter with a fresh order of sweets to make up for the ruined cakes in the crinkly wrapping. With that, Chopper's silence was bought, sort of.

He still hoped Sanji would change his mind, given some time and space. The application for that offshore research and education program didn't look like it had been filled out on a whim, and those textbooks in his bag pointed at very few subjects outside of the biological oceanography department. Sure, he had been dead set on the culinary program at first, but interests changed. It wasn't like anyone expected him to work in his guardian's restaurant for the rest of his life, either. He probably just needed time to adjust to the idea of it, after all. _It does seem to have come all out of the blue, hasn't it?_

As he watched him queue up at the register, an image came to his mind like a flash. For a moment, Chopper could picture Sanji standing in the middle of the giant ocean tank at the aquarium, looking for all the world like he had stumbled upon a great, incomprehensible treasure.

And he wondered why he had never realized that he had seen that smile before, just once (and how he hadn't seen it since).

* * *

 

*That Chopper's nicknames are both Tony was the unfortunate result of two stubborn parents who refused to back down at the signing of his birth certificate. To this day, he still has nightmares about the passionate argument preceding that momentous occasion.  
  
"Antoine!"  
  
"Theunis!"  
  
"An _toine_!"  
  
_"Theunis!"_  
  
**The "mummy" was actual philosophy-student-on-an-athletic-scholarship Roronoa Zoro, coerced into it by one enterprising captain-of-industry (and business/accounting major) Nami Bon-Vivant Lacroix.

**Author's Note:**

> I always wanted to write something about Sanji's dream with a modern take. All Blue apparently translates to oceanography and marine biology, who knew? Anyway, thank you for reading.


End file.
